Lucky '13: Keith Garcia, programming manager for the Sie FilmCenter

This past year has been tough for many people, and we're eager to kiss 2012 goodbye. In hopes that 2013 will turn out to be much luckier for many, we invited some of the town's cultural tastemakers -- entrepreneurs and entertainers we're lucky to have in Denver -- to answer a trio of questions. We excerpted quotes from these Q&A's in the New Year's Guide inserted in the December 13 issue of Westword, but we'll be featuring the complete interviews in a series of posts through the end of the year. Up next: Keith Garcia.

As programming manager for the newly christened Sie FilmCenter , Keith Garcia works hard to bring eclectic first-run features to Denver -- along with the actors, directors and writers behind the films. An unapologetic cult-movie fanatic, Garcia's programming blurs the line between big budget and art house, creating a year-round calendar of exciting, surprising films. This passion extends to preservation, too, as Garcia digs deeps for 35mm film prints, a format all but lost in the digital world.

We recently caught up with Garcia to talk about his expectations for his own film-making career and what makes -- or doesn't make -- someone lucky. But first, he had some important facts to share with us about, uh, Molly Ringwald.

Keith Garcia: By the way, before we get into the interview. My mind was blown by something late last night that I read, that has nothing to do with anything - but I have to share it with you. Did you know that Molly Ringwald was offered the lead role in both Pretty Woman and Ghost?

Westword: Shut up.

What a weird world we would live in if that came to be.

Why would she turn those down?

If I can look at her timeline correctly, I think that's when she was sort of getting tired of acting? She was still on top of the world, but then she went ahead and did like Fresh Horses with Andrew McCarthy. It was like, meh. It was like a nail in both of their acting coffins.

I don't know Julia Roberts's story very well, but isn't

Pretty Woman

what sort of kicked her into the top spot, so to speak?

Yeah. Because up up until then, she had done, like, Satisfaction, Mystic Pizza and then Steel Magnolias. But Pretty Woman was the movie that was like, "Who is this shinin', horse-mouthed lady who's stealing our hearts?" (Laughs)

Okay, okay. On to the actual questions. Tell me about a time when you got lucky. For the record, it does not have to be sexual -- but it can be, I mean, if you want the general public to know about it. (Laughs)

I was thinking about this, and I honestly think I'm a romantic person, but I don't think I subscribe to the idea of luck. Sometimes I'll say "I hope this happens" or "fingers crossed, knock on wood" but I don't think I've ever been like, "that's lucky!"

It sort of blows my mind as I think about that. When it comes down to like, say, Powerball, I'll play it. I get caught up in the math of it. First of all, don't do Quick Pick; those are mostly assigned numbers that their algorithms figure out that don't land very often. And if you get everything on one ticket, you're playing into an algorithm that sort of falls off of a chain of numbers. But if you get tickets separately, it has to reset the algorithm and you increase your chances of that Quick Pick actually hitting the numbers.

So if I won, someone could say, "Oh, you're lucky!" And I'd say, no, I just worried about it. I was thinking about people who are smarter than me and how they figure these things out. (Laughs.) What's your resolution for 2013?

I would like to make 2013 the year I actually start making things happen for myself. Long-standing things. Number one on that list: I need to make (movies) myself. I've spent so many years of my life watching movies and programming movies and talking to people who make movies that I've got a laundry list of movies I need to make myself. I need to figure out how they fit into my world, and I need to get it done.

There are stories to tell, and there are people, currently, who I want to tell their stories. And I don't want them to die in fifty years and I haven't told their story. (Laughs)

I know what you mean. Isn't it funny how sometimes,when we are immersed in the thing that we love, wanting to manifest that for ourselves eludes us a little bit.

The number of filmmakers that I've picked up from the airport, had amazing conversations with -- both narrative and documentary filmmakers -- will ask me, do you make films? We'll actually talk about my stuff. I've been given so much advice and have so many people in my corner, it's like, Jesus Christ! Just do it.

I started a documentary on drag in Denver a couple of years ago. I didn't kill it, but it sort of took a nap. I got way too busy to keep up with it. But I've kept up with following the stars of the film, and recently, I had a little palpitation in my heart because I saw that someone else had started doing a documentary. Even though I may not have been impressed with the angle they were taking judging by the trailer, I don't want to stop because someone else is doing it.

I don't like being second-run.

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

I never do anything; I'm not a party person. I don't really like the countdown thing. But someday, if I end up in a relationship, I will happily become a New Year's party person. But from the last few years of being single on New Year's -- it sucks to watch everyone else be like, "baby, I love you! Mwah." Good for you, but, unless you're going to share your boyfriend with me, please don't do that in front of me. (Laughs.)

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But I have a friend who's working a concert and I might go to that. But I don't know -- I tend to hate all the bands that get New Year's Eve play, locally. (Laughs.) And I have plenty of TV on DVD that I need to watch, so New Year's is a good night to bust through a season.